"If they are a Windows Outlook user forget about it, rarely does it work – often they have to manually reply"
If he means that when using iCal to invite someone on outlook then that's probably accurate, but Outlook 2010 has a pretty robust 'pick a meeting time' that works exactly as he described it should across an exchange server. You pick the attendee's it tells you what time works for everyone, and even shows (at a high level glance) which days of the week is best.
In fact, at work, we have a room reservation system hooked up to it so it'll even suggest a room thats available and reserve it.
You can attach meeting agenda's to outlook invites (and I believe you can do with Gmail and an add in?)
Most of the features he described (except maybe the location aware stuff) work on Outlook & Google Calendar. Of course there a few things on both clients that I wish were designed a little better but the functionality he asks for is basically there already...
If he means that when using iCal to invite someone on outlook then that's probably accurate, but Outlook 2010 has a pretty robust 'pick a meeting time' that works exactly as he described it should across an exchange server. You pick the attendee's it tells you what time works for everyone, and even shows (at a high level glance) which days of the week is best.
In fact, at work, we have a room reservation system hooked up to it so it'll even suggest a room thats available and reserve it.
You can attach meeting agenda's to outlook invites (and I believe you can do with Gmail and an add in?)
Most of the features he described (except maybe the location aware stuff) work on Outlook & Google Calendar. Of course there a few things on both clients that I wish were designed a little better but the functionality he asks for is basically there already...